I don't want your help, silly tablet people!
by Malin o Frida
Summary: Daniel finds a tablet with a very simple message written on it. "We will help you", but does he really need any help? He's got everything he ever wanted right here. Or does he? Can the tablet help him discover what he truly wants? Daniel/Vala R
1. We will help you, Daniel Jackson

_Of course I don't own Stargate, if I did I would have a lot more money in my pocket right now. _

_I just suddenly felt that I had to write something about Daniel and Vala. I've always been amused by their relationship. And as I've written before – I'm Swedish, so I hope the English is ok. If you find that it isn't – I'd love for you to tell me and then I could improve._

**Please write reviews if you like it, it's extremely funny to know what you think! =)**

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"Vala!"

Daniel Jackson doubted that he had ever been this frustrated in his entire life.

"Vala, get over here! I'm warning you…"

Vala Mal Doran was standing in a corner of Daniel's room at Stargate Command. In her hands she was holding one of the most exciting artifacts Daniel had ever rested his eyes on. She juggled it in her hands, laughing.

"Is it this one you want, Daniel?"

"You know it is, Vala. Just stop bugging me already."

"Well then… If you want it that bad? Come and get it!"

She threw her head back, laughing, and in less than a second she had run out through the door with the artifact clutched in her hands.

"Vala… Valaaa!"

Daniel could still hear her laughing mischievously at the other end of the hallway, but he didn't really bother following her since he knew that's exactly what she wanted him to do. He knew that she had absolutely no interest whatsoever in "that piece of rock" as Cam so kindly had called it. She only wanted to annoy him. And God knows – it worked. He sat down in his chair and opened up his laptop. Right now he was very happy that he had scanned the writings on the tablet into his computer so he could still work on the translation of it. He had just about started when a familiar person showed up in the doorway.

"She's a real piece of work, huh?"

Great. Cameron Mitchell of course. Daniel sighed.

"Yes, Cam. She sure is."

"So. What did she do to get your attention this time then?"

Daniel could see that Cam was very amused by the situation. As always.

"Did she… steal your glasses, or mess up your papers or what? Or maybe she just… I don't know? Pulled your hair? That's the most common way to do it in kindergarten? So I've heard."

"Wipe that grin off your face Cameron."

"Come on Daniel. There's nothing wrong with her? Why not give it a try?"

Daniel knew very well what he was trying to insinuate. And he didn't like it. Not that Vala wasn't pretty, or even stunningly beautiful, but that wasn't the problem. She was a nutcase.

THAT was the problem.

He remembered the first time he had met her as if it was yesterday. Never had he felt so many different things in one single day. Fear, pain, infatuation, vulnerability, passion, confusion… disappointment. He could go on all day. He turned his head to Cam.

"A lot of things are wrong with her, and you know it."

"Oki-doki. Whatever you say, Dr. Jackson."

Cameron turned around and left the room, but before he did this he smirked secretive as if he knew something that Daniel didn't. This left Daniel confused. What on earth was that supposed to mean? He decided not to linger on that and instead he turned his thoughts back to the scanned writings on the screen. They just didn't seem to make any sense? He had managed to translate it, or at least he thought he had. But something had to be wrong? The writings didn't tell him anything. According to what he could understand it said. "We will help you". Why would anyone write that on a tablet? And why would-

"Help! Please help me! Somebody!"

His thoughts were interrupted by a woman screaming at the top of her lungs. And not just any woman.

It was Vala.

Daniel could feel his blood freeze and for a moment he stopped breathing. He reacted instinctively. He jumped up from his seat and ran out the door.

"Vala! Where are you?!"

She didn't answer but he could hear her screaming. He ran towards the sound and he could see other people in the building doing the same thing. It didn't take long until he could see her, and it wasn't hard to see why she had been screaming. The tablet that she had stolen from his room had transformed into something completely different. It still had the writings on it, but that was the only thing that made him recognize it. It had turned into a white, pulsating substance that was covering almost her entire body. She was surrounded by eight or nine different people who all stopped Daniel when he wanted to reach out for her. One of the people standing closest to her was Samantha Carter.

"Daniel! Don't touch her! I tried, but I couldn't reach her. There's some kind of shield around her. Look at what it did to my hand."

Daniel quickly looked down at Sam's hand, and it was severely burnt.

"But... what are we going to do! We can't just stand here, Sam! Or at least I can't!"

Suddenly a voice filled the room.

_We can help you Daniel Jackson. We can help you Daniel Jackson. We can help you Daniel Jackson._

For some strange reason it was suddenly so simple. The force field wasn't there to keep _him_ out. It was there to keep everybody else out. Now he finally understood the writings. It was a message. For some reason he knew exactly what to do. He gave Sam a quick look and easily passed the force field. Just as he already knew – it didn't hurt him. He closed his eyes and reached for Vala.

Everything grew dark.

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_If you like it and want me to keep writing, please review. _


	2. Bothering the wildlife

_First of all I'd just like to thank you all SO much for all the wonderful reviews. It really surprised me that so many of you enjoyed my little story, and it made me very happy to read all the _

_comments. _

_Good reviews really make me want to __keep writing! I've been thinking a lot about this story, and which direction I want it to go, and now I've finally decided. So here's chapter 2 for you. Please _

_keep the reviews coming, they really __inspire me!_

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"Daniel? Daniel, come back. Wake up, please."

Daniel could hear Vala's voice, but it was very distant. He just… had to sleep. Just a little longer. What was she doing in his bedroom anyway?

"Danieeeeel!?"

Now she wasn't distant anymore, on the contrary. She was about two inches away from his ear, screaming at the top of her lungs. Daniel opened his eyes and blinked.

"Oh, Daniel! My Daniel, you saved me!"

Vala threw her arms around him and sniffled in his ear. Apparently she had been crying. But why? Saved her? From what? He could remember something vaguely. Something very strange, but yet so exciting. He sat up quickly, leaving Vala falling to the ground with a loud thud. He hoped that she was alright, because he didn't have time to check it.

"The tablet! It changed! Where is it now?"

"Daniel… that's very exciting and all, but… I'm more concerned about where WE are right about now."

She brushed the dirt off her clothes and sat up again, a little bit annoyed that he had just pushed her away from him.

"See?"

For the first time since waking up, Daniel looked up.

The surroundings were amazing. They were in some kind of a forest, but not any forest you could ever find on earth. The trees that were surrounding them were quite small, and they all had purple or pink leaves. A bit further away from where they were sitting he could see a small creek with what looked like fresh water. A big feathered animal, that didn't look like anything he had ever seen before was walking around in circles right next to the creek. It looked like it was performing some kind of ritual, because it was walking in the same pattern over and over again. And right next to the big animal was a woman with jet black hair, just about to poke the peaceful native animal with a stick.

"Vala! What on earth do you think you're doing? Get back here!"

But it was too late. She had already caught the animal's attention. It turned its head and looked at her, tilting its head slightly. Daniel took a couple of steps closer, clearing his throat.

"Excuse my friend here. She didn't mean to offend you. We are peaceful explorers."

The animal didn't listen. It was now staring at Vala. She took a step back, and the animal started to growl aggressively, while jumping from one foot to the other.

"Eh… Daniel?"

It was just preparing to attack Vala, when it noticed Daniel behind her. Nothing could have prepared them for what happened next. Immediately the aggressive animal stopped growling and jumping. Instead it threw its head back with a purring sound. It took a couple of steps closer to Daniel and bowed. After this it ran away alongside the creek, humming a cheerful tune. Vala turned to Daniel.

"What did you do to it?"

"Me? I… don't know? I didn't do anything? Did you do anything? Well, except poking it with a stick?"

"No. The stick was all."

"Vala? Why would you DO that anyway? Didn't you see it was performing some kind of ritual?"

"Oh? It was? I was just trying to wake it up."

Daniel just couldn't understand this girl. She would always be a mystery to him. Poking an animal you've never seen before… with a stick? Is that normal? It couldn't be. He had only known one person before that would even think about doing anything like it, and that was Jack O'Neill. And he was definitely not normal.

"Wake it up?"

Daniel sighed.

"Okay. Just don't do things like that again before talking to me. Alright?"

Vala jumped to her feet and saluted him.

"Yes Sir!"

She giggled and turned his back on him.

"Come on now Daniel. Let's go exploring!"


	3. The naked truth

Vala grabbed Daniel by the hand and started running towards the little forest of pink and purple trees. Daniel tried to slow her down.

"Vala. Think about it. We have absolutely no idea where we are? Maybe this is a really dangerous place? We're not even carrying any weapons?"

Vala stopped for a second and turned her head towards him.

"No weapons you say? And what do you call these?

She pulled up her skirt a little bit to reveal even more than usual of her gorgeous legs to Daniel and then continued on.

"Do you have any idea how many situations these legs or this face has saved me from?"

She paused for a second looking up at Daniel with a very innocent look on her face. She looked a little bit like a baby deer that even the most coldhearted hunter wouldn't be able to kill. Daniel felt his cheeks flushing a little bit and didn't really understand why. Maybe it was this strange sun? He looked over at the forest.

"Maybe you're right. Let's go see if we can find anyone who knows how we could get back home?"

Vala looked very excited and tried to grab Daniel by the hand again, but he moved it out of her reach just in time.

"And let's walk slowly, shall we? I'll take the lead and you follow? Ok?"

He couldn't take another encounter with a native getting poked with a stick, so he tried to do whatever he could to prevent it. Vala looked most amused by this.

"Ooooh, yes sir!" she said and jumped in behind him.

As they were walking through the strange forest, Daniel had time to really inspect the surroundings more. There were flowers growing everywhere, some of them almost as big as the trees, and most of them gave out a humming sound from inside their petals. He couldn't help but wonder if they were actually alive? This surely was a fascinating place. The ground was covered with soft grass that smelled heavenly. And the best part of all – he couldn't even feel his allergies, despite all of the flowers and the grass.

After they had been walking for quite a while the humming from the flowers seemed to intensify. Vala tugged Daniels' jacket.

"Daniel. They are singing. The flowers are singing. Why are they singing?"

"I don't know Vala. Just keep on walking."

He had never encountered anything like it before and didn't really want her to know that he was just as nervous as she was about the strangeness of it all.

Suddenly Vala stopped.

"Vala, come on. We should keep on walking."

He took a couple of steps more, but Vala wasn't following. He turned around to face her and there she was. But…something was strange. Vala was in some kind of trance, staring towards a meadow on their left. Daniel started walking towards her and noticed something very odd – Vala was now humming the same tune as the flowers did.

"Vala… What- What are you doing?

He reached her, grabbed her by the shoulders and started shaking her. No response.

"Vala, wake up!"

He felt something cold sweeping over the top of his head, and suddenly lost all control of his body. He could see Vala moving towards the meadow and he could feel his own legs walking in the same direction. No matter what he did, he couldn't stop himself. The humming around him grew stronger, and in a second or two, he was also humming the same tune. It was something extremely familiar about the melody, but he couldn't really remember why.

They had now reached the meadow and it was the most beautiful place Daniel had ever seen. In the middle of the meadow he could see a big white arch that seemed to hover in the air. It was all covered in white and red roses and it was looking like something out of an old-fashioned Disney movie. He could feel the soft green grass against his bare feet and when he looked up he could see Vala.

She was naked.

He looked down upon his own body. He wasn't wearing any clothes either.

The humming stopped instantly as Daniel came back to his senses.

"What the HELL is this!"

Vala shook her head in confusion as Daniel yelled. She had been under the flowers' spell longer than him and it took her a bit longer to regain full consciousness. Daniel was very happy about this, since it gave him time to run behind the white arch and hide his naked body. It was still a very beautiful arch and he couldn't help but feel that he almost violated it, pressing his naked body against it.

"D-Daniel?"

He couldn't help but stare at her where she was standing. She really was a true beauty, even more so without her clothes on.

"M-hm?"

She stared at him for a second and then she started laughing hysterically.

"You're naked! Why are you naked!"

She couldn't stop laughing at Daniel, who was still hiding behind the arch. He felt his cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

"Let me point out to you Vala. So are you."

Vala stopped for a second and looked down at herself.

"Oh. You're right."

She shrugged her shoulders and took a step closer to Daniel.

"Should we keep on walking then?"

Daniel peeked at her from behind his hiding spot.

"You can't be serious?"

Vala now looked more amused than ever.

"Come on Daniel. Our clothes are lying down there by the forest. See?"

Daniel looked in the direction she was pointing, and she was right. There were two piles of clothes down there. He had actually undressed –why on earth would he ever have done that? Stupid, silly, idiotic, annoying flowers. This was about the most embarrassing situation he had ever been in.

Vala was almost dressed now. Daniel took a deep breath, placed his hands to cover his most private parts, and ran for his clothes.


	4. The cabin

It didn't take long for Vala to get dressed. No wonder, Daniel thought, since she was always wearing way too little clothes that hardly covered her body. By the time she was fully dressed, Daniel had put his pants on, but was still struggling to button his shirt. Vala smiled at him.

"Daniel. That's not the way to do it, now is it?"

He looked down at his shirt, and in the hurry he had buttoned it completely wrong.

"Here. Let me help you."

Vala took a step closer so that he could feel her warm breath on the side of his neck while she was bending over to help him with the buttons. She unbuttoned the shirt slowly, and he suddenly felt very warm inside. Too warm.

"Vala. I can… or… well… I can do it myself thank you."

He gently pushed her hands away, turned around so that he had his back against her, and finished buttoning the shirt. He felt a bit lightheaded for some reason. When he turned around to face her again she was sitting in the grass, examining a tree that was more purple than pink.

"Daniel. I'm starving. Do you think we can eat these fruits?"

She was holding something in her hand that looked like a small pink coconut.

"I don't know, Vala. Maybe we should find someone to ask about that. Did you see that arch over by the meadow? Someone has to have constructed that. We can't be alone here."

He also remembered very closely that someone had talked to him before he stepped through that force field at the SGC, someone who wanted to help him with something. That person must be here somewhere? His thoughts were abruptly interrupted by Vala who was now standing within an inch from his face again. She was eagerly waving the coconut like fruit in his face.

"But I'm hungry now?"

"Alright, alright. I'll try to open it for you."

Daniel remembered seeing a lot of these fruits spread around the birdlike creature they encountered before, and half of them were emptied and eaten, so a good guess would be that they were ok to eat, even for them.

"No need."

Vala ran up to a rock beside them and placed the fruit there. She took one of her heels of, aimed closely and staked a hole right through the hard shell with a happy grin on her face.

"Haha! Gotcha!"

She turned to Daniel, while putting her shoe back on.

"Do you want half, Dr. Jackson?"

Daniel couldn't help but laugh; she was really something this girl.

They sat down next to each other in the grass and shared the fruit. Daniel couldn't remember ever tasting anything like it on earth or any other planet he'd visited before. It was as if all of the flavors he'd really liked at one point or another in his life were all joined together in this one meal.

Vala smiled.

"So Daniel. How come we're here?"

"What? I don't know?"

"But you translated that thing, didn't you?"

She looked confused. Daniel sighed.

"Well… you took it and ran away, remember?"

"Oh… yes but… You always succeed with everything anyway? I thought you already knew what it said? You know, being all smart and all."

Vala turned her head away from him, apparently slightly embarrassed about revealing her high thoughts about Daniel. Daniel was flattered, but still a bit embarrassed that he actually hadn't been able to meet her high expectations this time.

"The one thing I did find out was that it said…"

He stopped himself. He didn't want to scare her more than necessary. He decided not to tell her that he had found a message that was meant exclusively for him. "We will help you Daniel Jackson". What on earth did that mean? He had nothing he needed help with at all? No, it was better not to tell her in case he had mistaken.

"Or… actually I found nothing. Shall we go?"

Vala looked confused, but followed him when he got up from the ground and started walking again.

They had been walking for about an hour when the strange purple sun started to set at the horizon. The second the sun disappeared, a freezing, howling wind began to blow, and it got dark around them. It turned from the loveliest of places to a nightmare in an instant.

"Daniel!"

He could barely hear her over the sound of the howling wind.

"Daniel, we need to take cover somewhere!"

Daniel took his jacket off instantly and covered her bare shoulders with it. He couldn't take the idea of Vala being cold or getting sick. He looked around, but couldn't see anything – it was too dark.

Suddenly he heard a voice in his head. A very familiar voice, the voice that he heard when the tablet got hold of Vala at the SGC.

"_Follow your instincts Daniel Jackson."_

"What instincts! What are you talking about?"

Vala stared at him, looking pouty.

"I didn't say anything. Why are you shouting at me for?"

Daniel shushed her and now she looked really angry, but frankly; he didn't care right now. The voice continued in his head.

"_Follow your instincts… Follow your instincts…"_

He closed his eyes and tried to focus. What instincts? Daniel lived his life listening to facts and the written word, he didn't know much about instincts. But as the wind was intensifying, and he knew that they wouldn't make it for very long in this cold, he decided to give it a try. He grabbed Vala by the hand and started running in the direction his mind told him to go.

"Daniel! What are you doing? Are you crazy?"

"Just trust me Vala!"

They kept on running for a long time. It's hard to say if it were minutes or hours since he was so focused on the faint voice in his head telling him where to go. But finally they reached something that looked very familiar. Right in the middle of strange pink trees, mushrooms and gigantic flowers they found a cabin. It had a white porch with outdoor lighting, and smoke was coming out of the chimney. It looked just like any other cabin on earth. Daniel couldn't believe what a cabin like that did in a strange world like this. But there wasn't much time to lose. They were cold, wet and hungry. He could hear Vala sniffling behind him, but wasn't sure if it was from exhaustion or if she was crying. He had to get her inside.

He walked up the stairs and knocked on the door. It swung open, and they stepped inside.

_**If you like it, or have any other comments, please send me a review so I know what you think. If you like it, I will continue writing. =)**_


	5. The size of feet

The inside of the cabin looked just as plain and unremarkable as the outside of it. Daniel actually found that really odd since the rest of this world seemed quite amazing to him. There was a small wooden table in the middle of the room with worn wooden chairs around it, and the walls were covered with bookshelves, filled with dusty old books. In the corner of the room he could see a bed that had been neatly made up. The other corner seemed to resemble some kind of kitchen with a couple of cabinets and a smaller stove. He turned to Vala.

"Are you okay?"

She looked at him, wiped the rain off her face and pulled her hands through her soaked hair. Daniel couldn't help but smile a little. She smiled back at him.

"I'm fine Daniel. Been through worse."

She took a quick look around.

"This is a boring place?"

Daniel took a couple of steps towards the center of the room and sat down in one of the chairs. It creaked ominously under his weight. He gently let his hand stroke the, what seemed to be hand-crafted, wooden table. He smiled.

"I don't know Vala. I actually think it seems quite…"

He didn't have time to finish his sentence. All of a sudden they weren't alone anymore. In through a small covered hole in the wall that looked like a cat door slipped a feathered creature, the same kind that Vala poked with a stick at their arrival here. It didn't seem to notice them at first. It walked across the room and this time Daniel had time to take a closer look at it. It somewhat resembled a bird, but it didn't have any wings, and instead of a beak it had some kind of small trunk. The body was pink and purple, and Daniel guessed that it was some kind of natural camouflage that would help it to blend in with the pink and purple trees in the forest. To make up for the absence of wings it had really long legs with big feet that Daniel supposed made it able to run quite fast.

When the animal reached the center of the room, the inevitable happened – it discovered that it wasn't alone. It froze in front of Daniel and stared him right in the eyes. Then it looked at one of the bookshelves and back again, shaking his head in confusion. It repeated this move a couple of times. Looking at Daniel, looking at the bookshelf and then shaking its head in confusion. Then it bowed to Daniel and slipped out through the cat door again. Vala, who had been watching from the corner of the room slowly sat down on the bed.

"What are those things? And why do they seem to like you so much?"

Daniel exhaled. He had been holding his breath this entire time not to scare the creature.

"I don't know Vala. Maybe because I tried to communicate with it before?"

Vala shook her head.

"Nope. This wasn't the same one. The other one had smaller feet. I tend to notice the size of feet."

Daniel couldn't help but quickly looking down at his feet wondering whether they were small or big from Valas point of view.

Vala laughed.

"Don't worry Daniel. I'm sure your size is sufficient! Let's check if there's any food in this place. I'm starving!"

He couldn't help but feeling a bit embarrassed, but still he got up and accompanied Vala to the kitchen area.

He cleared his throat.

"I don't think we can just go through these cabinets, I bet someone is living here Vala."

"Come on Daniel! Live a little!"

Actually he was really hungry. That fruit they ate before was long gone, and the storm was still howling outside.

"Okay. Maybe we could leave a note or something? And then send something back through a stargate if we find one later that we can dial home from?"

Vala was already eating from a big loaf of bread that she had found.

"I bet that will be great Daniel. Now eat."

**Please send me a review so that I know what you think! =)**


	6. The meltdown

**Thank you for all your wonderful reviews. It really gives me inspiration to go on writing this story!**

**Here comes the next chapter:**

Vala and Daniel sat at the wooden kitchen table, eating from the loaf of bread in silence. Daniel couldn't help feeling like a criminal. Someone was most definitely living in this cabin, and they had just stolen their food. He looked up at Vala who wasn't paying attention to anything that happened around her, she was too busy stuffing herself with food. She must have been really hungry.

He got up from his chair, patted her gently on the back and handed her what was left of his share of the bread.

"Here. You can have this too."

She looked up at him from where she was sitting.

"Daniel. You're bigger than I am. You have to be just as hungry, if not hungrier."

"It doesn't matter. Have it"

He gently placed the leftover bread in front of Vala. She gave him a faint smile and kept on eating while Daniel head on over to take a closer look at the bookshelves.

He couldn't stop thinking about the birdlike creature and its strange behavior. Why had it been staring towards the bookshelf, shaking its head the way it did? Was there something wrong with the way the books were aligned? Had they hit it by mistake when they entered the cabin? They seemed like highly intelligent creatures anyway, trying to communicate with them the way they did. Daniel decided to look more closely at the books. He took one out and looked at the cover.

"The ancient pyramids of Giza".

He stared at the title in disbelief. What would a book from earth be doing in this strange place? He quickly took out another one and read the title.

"Mayan culture"

He couldn't stop staring. He knew this book - he had it at his office at Stargate command. He remembered that since he had used it only last week when he was trying to understand the use of an artifact they had found on another planet. This was starting to get creepy.

Before he had time to look at the next book he heard Valas voice from the other side of the room.

"Daniel..."

Her voice was filled with terror, fear and disbelief as she called his name.

"Daniel, please come and look at this."

He turned around and saw her standing by the side of the neatly made bed. She was holding something in her hand, but she had her back against him so he couldn't see what it was. He slowly walked up to her side and looked over her shoulder. In her shaking hands she held a framed photo that she had picked up from the bedside table. The photo showed a very familiar beautiful woman with jet black hair sitting in a chair by a window. It was a picture of Vala. She looked at him with fear in her eyes.

"Is this some kind of a sick joke? 'Cause if it is then it isn't funny, Daniel! Alright?"

He gave her a stern look.

"I have absolutely no idea what is going on, okay? I'm just as confused as you are."

Daniel tried to keep his cool, but on the inside he was terrified. Someone or something seemed to be playing with their minds, and he didn't like it. Not at all. Suddenly Vala froze.

"What is that sound?"

He listened carefully but couldn't hear anything.

"What sound, Vala? You're imagining things. Come here, sit down."

He lead her back to the kitchen chair so she could sit down. Then he heard it too. The flowers outside had started humming again - the same tune as before, but louder this time. Daniel looked out the window, but all he could see was rain and fog. It was still stormy outside, and somehow the humming was a lot more terrifying when he couldn't see what was causing it. It had to be the flowers, right? He felt the same kind of cold sensation as he did the last time this happened and he heard the voice in his head whisper.

_"We just want to help you, Daniel Jackson"_

Just before he lost consciousness he had time to scream at the top of his lungs.

"I don't. Want. Your help. Silly tablet people!"

Then he fell headlong to the floor.

**Please write a review so I know if you're still reading and if you want me to continue. =)**


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